Patty Blount, Authorhttp://www.pattyblount.com
Just another WordPress siteSun, 19 Nov 2017 19:45:47 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1The Way It Hurts is a 2017 Best Book Award Winnerhttp://www.pattyblount.com/the-way-it-hurts-is-a-2017-best-book-award-winner/
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 14:09:06 +0000http://www.pattyblount.com/?p=31548American Book Fest named THE WAY IT HURTS as a 2017 Best Book Award Winner, Young Adult Fiction category.
]]>It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year — YA Scavenger Hunt Time!http://www.pattyblount.com/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-ya-scavenger-hunt-time/
http://www.pattyblount.com/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-ya-scavenger-hunt-time/#commentsTue, 03 Oct 2017 16:00:12 +0000http://www.pattyblount.com/?p=31524

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt!

This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Huntpage to find out all about the hunt. There’s a BUNCH of contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM–but do check out the other teams for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve hidden my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, October 8th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting GINA DAMICO on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Gina Damico grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York, and has since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker and breadmonger. She’s the author of the grim-reapers-gone-wild books of the Croak trilogy (Croak, Scorch, and Rogue), Hellhole, Wax, and Waste of Space, all published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She lives in California with her husband, two cats, one dog, and an obscene amount of weird things purchased at yard sales.

Find out more information by checking out Gina’s website. And now, without further ado, I am happy to hand things off to GINA DAMICO!

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

When I first started writing WASTE OF SPACE, I wanted to show every stage of the reality show production process: concept, development, auditions, the narrowing down of the applicants into final casting interviews, and lastly the reveal of the chosen contestants. The problem with showing all of this – especially in a book and not in some quick-cut TV montage – is that it ran way too long. I soon realized that readers would enjoy seeing some of the process, but ultimately would rather meet the characters who we’re going to spend the rest of the book with as quickly as possible, and not so much the auditioners that don’t make the cut.

So I ended up cutting the audition process, which sped things up considerably (and was fairly fitting in a meta way, given the book’s themes about editing and shaping the narrative to fit one’s own agenda). But that means those poor rejected applicants got left on the cutting room floor – or rather, a forgotten file on my computer – so today I’m giving some of them the chance to see the light of day, along with the poor interviewer employed by DV8, the network airing the show. Take it away, weirdos!

DV8: What is that, allergies? I think I’ve got some Claritin in my purse—

#2971:[more loud breathing]

DV8: Come on, kid, I don’t have all day. Are you my 5:15 slot or not?

#2971: I…am…

DV8: Yes?

#2971:Your father!

DV8: Oh, for Pete’s sake—I said no! Take your stupid robots and Dark Vaders and get out!

#2971: It’s Darth Vader—

DV8: Security!

REJECTED

Applicant #5890

Age: 18

DV8: What do you want to be when you grow up?

#5890: I was thinking I’d like to be a physicist.

DV8: You sure about that? Because let me tell you something—and I know from personal experience—that crowd is seriously lame.

#5890: We’re not that lame.

DV8: Wait. “We?”

#5890: Er—

DV8: You’re aware that we’re only casting teenagers, right? How old are you?

#5890: Eighteen!

DV8: Prove it. Show me your school ID.

[he does]

No, move your thumb.

[he does]

It says faculty! You need to leave, sir.

#5890: I want to go to space! Please let me go! These rotten teenagers don’t deserve it. Twenty years in the public school system, trying to teach these Neanderthals—I deserve it!

DV8: I’m calling security.

#5890:Don’t leave me here with them!

REJECTED

Applicant #6987

Age: 14

DV8: I can’t help but notice that you’re setting your shoe on fire. Can you please put the lighter away?

#6987: For a few minutes, or…

DV8: For the rest of the interview. So. What do you like to do for fun?

#6987: Set things on fire.

[DV8 sighs.]

DV8: Security.

REJECTED

Patty here… that was awesome! Thanks, Gina. I’m adding Waste of Space to my TBR pile. Readers, don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Patty Blount, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is THREE. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

AND HERE IS A SPECIAL GIVEAWAY FROM YOURS TRULY, Patty Blount. I’m giving away an Amazon Echo Dot. Just enter the Rafflecopter. a Rafflecopter giveaway

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http://www.pattyblount.com/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-ya-scavenger-hunt-time/feed/1THE WAY IT HURTS and Its Back Cover Copyhttp://www.pattyblount.com/the-way-it-hurts-and-its-back-cover-copy/
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:48:07 +0000http://www.pattyblount.com/?p=31512Readers,

We goofed!

My apologies. We made an editorial change to the novel AFTER the cover was designed, which means that change wasn’t made to the back cover copy in time for production.

While the back cover copy suggests some anonymous person snapped a picture of main character Elijah Hamilton leering at actress Kristen Cartwright during her school’s production of CATS, the story was changed during the editorial process so that it’s actually Elijah who posts a picture of Kristen, along with a comment that is taken out of context. My editors and I believed having Elijah cause the story’s main problem rather than merely be a victim of it was more compelling.

Descriptions on book retail sites and on Goodreads are up to date, but the paperback copies are not.

I apologize for the confusion and hope you’ll nevertheless consider reading THE WAY IT HURTS.

]]>Let Me Tell You About Himhttp://www.pattyblount.com/let-me-tell-you-about-him/
http://www.pattyblount.com/let-me-tell-you-about-him/#commentsSat, 05 Aug 2017 21:10:30 +0000http://www.pattyblount.com/?p=31496When people find out I’m an author, one of the first questions they ask me is why do I write young adult fiction. And I always answer, “Because I want teens to know they’re not alone.” When I was growing up, my reading jumped this chasm from Nancy Drew to Barbara Cartland romance. The only true young adult fiction I knew about was Judy Blume’s and when I discovered her books, I felt like I had friends who knew exactly what I needed. So today, I write about the things that matter to teens. At least, I hope I do.

That’s why today, I’m writing about death. About grief. Yeah. I know. Nobody wants to talk about it. I don’t either. But we do. Because the ugly truth is our time on Earth is short and goes by fast.

There are a hundred — probably a thousand — things you hear when someone you love dies. People pray for you. They tell you they’re sorry. They hope the one you loved didn’t suffer. They tell you he’s in a better place and he was a good person and invite you to call them if you need anything and —

Like I said… probably a thousand different things.

You know what you don’t hear a lot of?

“Tell me about him.”

His name was Robert — Bob to everybody, Dad to three, Bumpy to seven — plus two great-grands. But to one — he was Dear.

My earliest memory of him was as a little girl. He used to collect the rent from the superintendent of the building in Queens, NY where I grew up. He had a bad knee and wore a brace that used to jingle when he walked. It terrified me! Years later, when I grew up and married his son, I couldn’t seem to remember ever fearing him.

I just finished writing a book in which music plays a huge role. One of the songs I reference in that book is Simple Man. The lyrics to that song just fit so well when I think about his life. He never went to college or traveled the world. He just did what he had to do to provide for his family. In addition to his fulltime job, he delivered newspapers. In the eighties, he drove a limo. I still have Tom Cruise’s autograph scrawled on a receipt in a frame on my dresser because he thought I’d like it.

(He was right.)

The years flew by. Our first son came along and my husband said, “I want to name him for my dad.” He and Nanny wall-papered the nursery for us. When our Robert was born, we’d plan to call him Bobby but he said no. “Let’s call him Robbie. I hate being called Bob and that’s what happens to Bobbys after they grow up.” Robbie is 25 now. And he’s Rob instead of Bob because that’s what happens to Robbies after they grow up.

Rob is a motorsports reporter in Charlotte, NC today, and it’s no accident of chance. That love of cars began when he was barely a year old because his grandfather kept a handful of Matchbox cars – replicas of his favorite NASCAR cars — on his dresser. Well before Robbie could talk, he was zooming those toy cars around the floor. There were dozens of trips taken together to Dover Speedway, Riverhead Raceway, and Homestead, Florida. One by one, as the grandkids arrived, he took the time to learn who they were, what excited them, what was important to them. I’ve lost count of just how many outdoor hockey games he shivered through for his grandsons — and one of his grand-daughters.

When his three children were small, they got to be King or Queens for the day on their birthdays. On that day, the whole family did whatever the birthday child asked. My husband’s request? To watch the airplanes. So the family would drive to the airport at LaGuardia and watch planes take off for hours.

My husband works at LaGuardia today, as an aircraft mechanic.

Once we had a child of our own, I learned what a holy terror my husband had been. There’s this story about dinner one night when he was small. I’m not entirely sure what horrible behavior led up to this, but somehow, his father turned an entire glass of milk over my husband’s little blond head. Whatever it was, he never. Did it. Again.

He was a quiet, steady man. Slow to anger, but when he was angry –duck and cover. But when he loved, he did it so you knew it.

You knew it.

Remember when the special edition quarters came out for all 50 states? He slowly and quietly began saving those quarters for each grandchild. Every Christmas, the kids got their quarters until each kid had all 50. My sons still have theirs.

The years blurred by. They retired and moved to Florida. And even so far away, there was always contact, always a presence. My son started a fantasy NASCAR league — both his grandparents joined it and had their own little competition going.

Competition — oh boy, is that a trait in this family!

Family Game Night is a serious thing. 500 Rummy, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Clue, Apples to Apples — we have a dozen different games we’d play in large groups until we couldn’t see straight anymore. And as much as we knew he loved us — when there was a game being played — he taught us that there are no free rides. You play smart, or don’t play at all. There were quite a few games when little Chris left the table crying. But today, adult Chris will be the first one to kick your ass if he picks the right card. On the last time he visited our house, we played Skip-Bo. There were six of us playing — my husband and me, our sons, and my husband’s parents. Like most card games, the more players you have, the harder the game gets. At one point in the game, Bob turned to my son and said, “You’re giving me BUNK! Nothing but BUNK!”

Rob grinned wide because beating Bumpy at any game had by this point become a badge of honor. So I’ve been calling Rob “Bunky” ever since to mark the occasion.

He and I shared a love of books. At every visit, he accidentally-on-purpose left his book behind for me. Young adult fiction wasn’t his thing. Yet he bought my books. Every single one of them.

After his girlfriend broke his heart, Rob and I were talking about his fear he’d never find anybody who’d love him. I wondered if he’d start sleeping his way through his college class and he said “No way. I don’t play with girls.” Now, I’d love to tell you he learned this from me. That something he read in one of my books made a deep impression on him. But no. Rob told me, “I learned how to treat women by watching how Bumpy treats Nanny.” (For more on this, read this blog post.) And I’m happy to tell you Rob has found a girl who loves him as much as he loves her.

He didn’t have much — but what he did have, he shared completely. Unconditional love exhibited by his quiet, steady supportive presence that let his family grow up and become exactly what (and who) they were meant to be. That reminds me of something funny — at one of our Christmas gatherings — and we number eighteen now, my mother-in-law said, “This is all because I said yes!” True, but my father-in-law ASKED first.

There are so many sentiments online…I found this one and wish I knew who to credit because it’s just so true.

I said I was writing about death. About grief.

Hmm. I was wrong. I wrote about a life. A really incredible life. Those he left behind are happy and honored to tell you all about that life.

Nothing says summer like a good book and some shade! Grab your favorite hat or pair of sunglasses and an E-copy of Some Boys for just $1.99 starting July 17th (July 31st). Visit Amazon or other book seller’s website.

I chose to blog about ‘heat’ as a metaphor for intensity. Give it a read or share!

]]>Patty’s YA “Idol” Searchhttp://www.pattyblount.com/pattys-ya-idol-contest/
http://www.pattyblount.com/pattys-ya-idol-contest/#commentsTue, 13 Jun 2017 17:52:12 +0000http://www.pattyblount.com/?p=31456My new book, THE WAY IT HURTS, drops on August 1st. It’s a story about two talented teens who desperately want to become famous. He’s got a hard rock band called Ride Out and she dreams of a career on Broadway. But they end up becoming infamous because of a single viral tweet.

This book was a lot of fun to write. Main character Elijah is the front man for his band and because every band needs some original songs to sing, I *coughs* wrote one. But here’s the thing… I’m not musical. Like, at all. I can’t carry a tune. I can’t even whistle.

illustration of guitar shape with colorful grungy splash

So if you’re musically inclined, here are the lyrics for THE WAY IT HURTS. Set them to a melody — it could be a cappella, synth, or maybe you have your own band — go for it!

TO ENTER: Send me an audio file of your entry. Email pattyblount3 at gmail dot com and put SONG ENTRY in the subject line.

Me and my panel of judges (sorry, Simon had other commitments. Judges will be my family!) will choose one to be the official SONG for this book. I can’t promise you a recording contract, but I CAN blast your song all over my social media including in the official book trailer. Oh, and how about a copy of THE WAY IT HURTS?

And a $50 iTunes gift card.

Terms: U.S. only, please. Entries must include the lyrics I’ve written, but you may change a word to suit the timing of your composition. As for genre, this song is NOT a ballad so nothing sappy. But country, rap, hard rock, folksy, ’80’s style, synth — it’s all good. The song is intended as a duet, with the second voice indicated by bold lines. Contest ends July 31, 2017 at midnight, Eastern time.